Month: February 2010

If you’re looking for some quality early-season baseball, you should head out to Livermore High this weekend. The Cowboys are hosting the first annual NCS/CCS Showdown, with three games pitting some pretty good teams against each other. Here’s the slate:

That lineup of games speaks for itself when it comes to the caliber of teams competing. I also have it on good authority that a new “Mini-Green Monster” is going up at Livermore, complete with a new scoreboard. Gotta check that out! Anyway, head out to Livermore for some quality ball this weekend.

It’s finally here, the North Coast Section basketball Selection Sunday. As most people know by now, the NCS is sticking with its closed door meetings for selecting the fields and so we’ll be following from afar today waiting for the brackets to be released. Ben Enos and myself will be guiding you on a live chat at 3 p.m. to discuss the brackets, so make plans to join us then. Keep an eye on the NCS web site for the brackets to be released as they are completed (they’ll likely come out one by one, probably starting with Division VI). Once they are all released, we’ll get them up here on the blog as well. Talk to you guys at 3 p.m.

Concord High WR Corey Galindo sent in his official letter of intent to UC Davis today, allowing the rangy wideout to continue his career as an Aggie.

Galindo, who at 6-foot-4 offers outstanding size for the receiver position, accepted the first official offer he received. He had discussions with several other schools, but decided to go with Davis when it offered.

For those who can’t attend the game, tomorrow’s Bay Shore Athletic League boys basketball playoff title contest between St. Joseph Notre Dame and Salesian is going to be webcast on BayAreaSportsChannel.com. It’s a relatively new site, but they’ve been broadcasting for much of the league season and it’s definitely a good-looking site. So, check em out tomorrow night.

Tonight’s Bay Shore Athletic League boys basketball semifinal between St. Mary’s and Salesian is sure to draw a huge crowd. The teams already filled up McKeon Pavilion at Saint Mary’s College in the first meeting and had a strong crowd at Laney College for their second showdown. The rivals meet again tonight at 7 with a berth in the BSAL championship game on the line, but this time it will be played on the campus of Salesian — which possesses one of the smallest gyms in the East Bay. So why was the game not moved?

I just got word from Salesian that they tried to have the game moved to Pinole Valley, which was available, to accommodate a larger crowd. Since the BSAL takes the gate receipts from all playoff games, Salesian felt the league should pay the facility rental cost at Pinole (in the neighborhood of $1,500). With the bigger venue, it would probably at least triple the attendance, thus tripling the gate and that rental cost would be made back and probably then some. The league shot down that request and Salesian (I believe rightfully so) was not willing to pay that cost without being able to receive any gate money in return.

So the game will stay at Salesian. I’m told there is a list set up with names of players’ parents to ensure they’ll be able to buy a ticket and enter the game, but for the general public my only advice is get there early.

“The administration was horrible; there was no support there,” Gumbs said, before acknowledging that vice principal Oliver Chambers had been a supportive hand during his tenure. “After getting four kids scholarships this year, I would think they’d be real supportive. It’s too bad.”

The Wildcats were Oakland Athletic League co-regular-season champions in 2008 and went 12-8-1 in Gumbs’ two seasons, after going 3-26-1 the previous three years. Four seniors from this year’s class (Damante Horton, David Douglas, Kelly Mitchell and Edward Davis) earned scholarships to play college football.

“He had a lot of support,” Sutton said. “He was not supportive, dealing with paperwork and all the other things that haven’t been getting done. (Coaching) is not just about the X’s and O’s. It’s about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.”

Carondelet High’s Heather Cerney, who has been among the East Bay’s top distance runners since her freshman year, orally committed to Cal tonight.
“It was a long process,” said Cerney about deciding on a college. “It really just came down to (Cal’s) great academics … a combination of great academics and athletics.”
Besides Cal, Cerney also took visits to Cal Poly and Santa Barbara. The senior finished 14th in the California Interscholastic Federation Division II state championship cross country race in November, and was fourth in the 2009 North Coast Section Division II championship race. Cerney placed in the top 20 in the CIF Division II state championship race all four of her high school cross country seasons.